I started building brands in 2009. For years I helped other companies figure out how to show up online in a way that matched who they actually were. I saw firsthand what happened when a business invested in its positioning, and what happened when it didn’t.

In 2014, I got to test everything I believed on myself.

My wife La-Tisha and I founded MonaVation General Contractors (MVGeneral) in Indianapolis. We had a clear mission: build a construction firm that reflected the community it served. Hire locally. Partner with diverse suppliers. Deliver the same standard of excellence whether the job was a $50K renovation or a multi-million-dollar institutional build.

But having a mission and having the market recognize that mission are two different things. So I did what I knew how to do: I used brand positioning to close that gap.

Cleaning Soot Off Walls at a Chain Restaurant

Our first year was slow. We picked up a handful of jobs, nothing that would make anyone take notice. Then we got a call about a fire at a Steak ‘n Shake in Brownsburg. They needed someone to come in and do an initial clean. Our first real job was scrubbing soot off the walls of a chain restaurant.

From there, we did a lot of insurance work. Fire restoration. Water damage. Painting and finishing. The kind of work that keeps a company alive but doesn’t exactly put you on anyone’s radar.

Over time, we worked our way into larger scopes: selective demolition, final cleaning, comprehensive rehabilitation projects like Amber Woods Apartments in Indianapolis. We did good work. We built relationships. We earned trust with every project we touched.

But here’s what I already knew from building brands: good work alone doesn’t scale a business. The contractors and agencies that award the big contracts don’t drive through your job sites to evaluate your capability. They search online. They land on your website. They form an opinion in 10 seconds.

If what they see says “small sub doing restoration work,” that’s the box you stay in, regardless of what you’re actually capable of delivering.

The Positioning Playbook

Most construction companies grow through referrals, handshakes, and bidding wars. You grind your way up one job at a time and hope someone remembers your name when the next project comes around.

That works until it doesn’t. Referral-based growth has a ceiling. You’re only as visible as the last person who thought of you.

I didn’t want to wait for that ceiling. I had spent five years building brands and helping other businesses break through the gap between what they could do and what the market believed they could do. I knew exactly where that gap lived: in how a company presented itself to the marketplace and online.

So from the beginning, I applied the same discipline to MVGeneral that I applied to my clients.

What We Built (Beyond the Buildings)

I didn’t treat MVGeneral’s web presence as an afterthought. I treated it as infrastructure, as fundamental to the business as our bonding capacity or our safety program.

A website that told our story. Not a brochure site with stock photos and a contact form. A site that communicated who we were, what we stood for, and the caliber of work we delivered. Real projects. Real images. A real narrative.

A portfolio that proved capability. Every project documented. Every scope of work articulated clearly. When a developer or public agency landed on our site, they didn’t see a subcontractor. They saw a construction management firm with a track record and a point of view.

A brand voice that matched the ambition. “Building Opportunities. Delivering Excellence.” That isn’t a tagline I came up with on a napkin. It’s a positioning statement that tells the market exactly where we sit. We made the brand more than a marketing strategy but an operational imperative, to embody the qualities that owners and public agencies look for before they award management-level contracts: professionalism, transparency, and institutional readiness.

I positioned MVGeneral the way I would position any client at Enthrall: not for where the company was today, but for where it was headed.

The Phone Started Ringing

And then it happened. Not overnight, but faster than it would have through referrals alone.

Firms and agencies that had never worked with us started reaching out. They found MVGeneral online. They read our story. They reviewed the portfolio. And they called.

The inquiries weren’t for restoration work. They were for partnership. Many of our largest projects came as a result of partners reaching out to us for joint venture opportunities. Firms that discovered who we were online and wanted to build with us, not just hire us.

General contractors wanted us on their teams for institutional projects. Public agencies saw a firm that understood procurement diversity and could manage complex builds. Developers saw a partner, not a sub.

Thanks to these strategic partnerships, here’s where MVGeneral’s portfolio sits today:

  • Indiana Convention Center: carpet replacement and AV security upgrade alongside Lucas Oil Stadium
  • Indiana State Archives Building: new construction on the Canal Walk
  • IU Health Fort Wayne Hospital: project engineering the core and shell on a $421M, 295,000 SF medical facility
  • Conner Prairie: museum exhibit construction management in Fishers
  • Ivy Tech Community College: renovation of the Illinois Fall Creek Center
  • City of Refuge Christian Church of Northwest Indiana: a 7,864 SF new sanctuary campus in Portage
  • Club 720 Dev Corp: building residential subdivisions and urban infill developments statewide

Over $250M in construction value. 50+ projects managed. 100+ diverse partners across the state.

From cleaning soot off walls at a Steak ‘n Shake to managing construction on the state’s convention center, its archives building, and a $421M hospital. Many of those opportunities came to us, not the other way around.

That trajectory didn’t happen because we got better at construction. We were already good. It happened because the right people could finally see how good we were.

What I’d Tell Any Business Owner

I run both companies for a reason. Enthrall exists because I’ve seen what brand positioning does, not in theory, but in my own business. MVGeneral is the proof.

If you’re reading this and your company is capable of more than the market gives you credit for, here’s what I’d say:

Your website is a filter. Every prospect who lands on your site is making a decision: is this company at my level, or not? If your online presence still reflects where you were three years ago, you are anchoring the market’s perception to an outdated version of your company. You will continue to attract opportunities below your capability.

The market can only hire the version of you that it can see. It doesn’t matter how many projects you’ve completed, how many certifications you carry, or how many years you’ve been in business. If that information isn’t visible, organized, and compelling online, it doesn’t exist to the person making the decision.

Brand positioning exists so the right people understand what you do. Who you do it for, and why you’re the one to call. That’s the difference between being found and being overlooked. Between getting the call and never knowing the opportunity existed.

I built Enthrall to help businesses close that gap. I built MVGeneral to prove that it works.

If your online presence doesn’t match your capability, you’re leaving opportunities on the table. And somebody else, somebody who may not be as good as you, is picking them up.

Mike Pirtle is the founder of Enthrall Brand Solutions (est. 2009) and co-founder of MVGeneral (MonaVation General Contractors, est. 2014) in Indianapolis, IN.